Auston Matthews lights the lamp twice in return to action

Auston Matthews made a triumphant return to the matchup for the Maple Leafs (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

On Saturday night the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t need any magic from Auston Matthews. He showed them some anyway.

In a 6-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens, the 20-year-old scored twice to announce with some level of certainty that he’s ready to make a difference after missing four games with an upper-body injury. The Maple Leafs went 4-0-0 in his absence, but there’s no wrong time to get a superstar back – and it appears Matthews is back.

Just under halfway through the third period, Matthews took a backhand pass from Mitch Marner and made no mistake on a goal Charlie Lindgren had absolutely no chance on.

What makes these goals a little more interesting is that they came following a mid-game line swap that put Marner and Matt Martin on the sophomore’s flanks. Matthews opened the game with his traditional linemates Zach Hyman and William Nylander, but after the Maple Leafs’ slow start Mike Babcock mixed it up.

It would be exceedingly surprising to see Martin riding shotgun with Matthews for an extended period of time, but Marner could conceivably be a different story. From a stylistic perspective it’s easy to dream on a Matthews-Marner combo, and the latter has had a hard time finding his spot in the lineup this season. If Babcock continues to shuffle it’s difficult to imagine a better trigger man for his young winger than the best scorer on his squad – and it hasn’t been tested yet.

Mitch Marner had never set up an Auston Matthews goal until tonight. Not one assist on Matthews' first 50 goals in the league.